Listed in Arkansas Register of Historic Places on 04/03/24

Summary

Tucker State Farm, also known as Tucker Unit for Youthful Offenders, is the state’s second oldest prison farm. Envisioned as a self-operating and self-sustaining institution, in 1916 the State Penitentiary Board bought more than 4,500 acres of land. Life on the prison farm was brutal, with ten to fifteen hour working days, physical abuse, and poor medical care and food supplies. Following an investigation by state police in 1966, the public became aware of the abuses and conditions at Tucker. The entire prison system was declared unconstitutional in 1970 after eight class-action lawsuits were filed against Tucker and Cummins Prison Farms, and reforms finally began to be seriously implemented. The prison built new facilities, introduced educational programs, overhauled the mental and physical healthcare system, and created rehabilitation programs. The state’s prison system was declared constitutional again in 1982, and Arkansas became the first state to have their prison system returned to legality after being declared unconstitutional. Tucker Unit received full accreditation by the American Correctional Association in 1981, the first of Arkansas’s prisons. For its importance as the second oldest prison farm and a catalyst for reforming the justice system in the state, Tucker State Farm is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places under Criterion A: Politics/Government with state significance.

Narrative Description

HISTORY OF THE PROPERTY

The incarceration of criminals has always been a feature of Arkansas’s governmental system and is one of the oldest institutions in the state. Jails were often the second, if not first, structures to be built when a town incorporated, and small county jails proliferated across the state to deal with incarcerating minor offenders for drunkenness, loitering, and other crimes. One of the first jails was constructed at Arkansas Post in 1731 during its use as a French military outpost. In the 1830s, advocates for a centralized prison system began to call for a state prison which was completed in 1842 where the State Capitol now stands.[1] The convict-lease system was codified by law in 1873, and the state profited from “leasing” inmates to private companies and individuals.[2] Brick manufacturers, farms, mines, and railroads paid the state nominal amounts of money, as little as 35 cents a day per prisoner in the 1870s, to employ inmates confined at the state penitentiary. The inmates, of course, were not paid for their labor, and many suffered abuse, did not have enough to eat, and lacked adequate medical attention. Governor George Donaghey attempted to end the convict-lease system with little success. Instead, he pardoned 360 inmates, more than 33% of the prison population at the time, to draw attention to the injustice of the practice.[3]

In March of 1893, the convict-lease program was revised and put the penitentiaries under the control of the Arkansas Penitentiary board, which was also given rights to “purchase or lease farms upon which certain classes of convicts could be employed.”[4] The Penitentiary Board established the first working prison farm in Arkansas at Cummins State Farm in 1902. The farm proved to be profitable for the state, and with the number of inmates at Cummins quickly exceeding capacity, the Penitentiary Board approved the acquisition of a second state farm in Jefferson County. Tucker State Farm was located on prime farmland fifty miles north of the older Cummins State Farm. The state bought 1,300 acres of land in 1916 at the price of $4,800 and an additional 3,300 acres of land in 1928 for $205,000.[5]

While Cummins held African American inmates, both female and male, and older white inmates, Tucker State Farm only held white inmates and became known as the “white man’s prison.” The only Black prisoners at Tucker were those on death row awaiting execution (the execution chamber was moved to Tucker in 1933).[6] Tucker State Farm was much smaller than its sister prison farm, holding an average of 275 inmates, but it operated in the same way as a working, self-sufficient farm. Prisoners were required to work in the fields picking cotton and growing crops such as cucumbers, wheat, corn, and other garden staples. The prison sold most of the produce, and the profits went towards maintaining Tucker State Farm.[7] The leftover produce went to feed the inmates. In fact, the Department of Corrections did not spend a single dollar that wasn’t from farm profits until 1970.[8] The prison farms, in actuality, made the state substantial profits most years, especially the cattle herds, sorghum mills, and cotton crops, which made a profit of $500,000 in 1948 alone.[9]

Only a few people at Tucker in the early 1900s were paid, non-imprisoned employees; in 1932, only five wardens were on the state payroll and that number stayed steady until the late 1960s.[10] Instead, the state relied on “trusties”, inmates who were given guns and allowed to police their fellow prisoners, to maintain order at Tucker.[11] Trusties essentially ran the prison, patrolling the perimeter and the barracks at night when most guards left to go home. Trusties were allowed to run money-making businesses; the long-line rider sold food and drinks in the farm fields; and the floorwalker sold beds and mattresses inside the prison. They also had the ability to leave the prison during the day, and they frequently smuggled in alcohol, weapons, medical supplies, and other items to sell to the other inmates. The trusty system, while cheap for the state, exacted a heavy toll on non-trusty inmates. The trusties frequently abused their power, beating other prisoners with the strap, sometimes going so far as to cause their victims’ deaths, and requiring payment before inmates could seek medical attention, or procure food, mail, and protection at night from stabbings and sexual assault.[12] Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens noted that “It was within the power of a trusty guard to murder another inmate with practical impunity…Some inmates were apparently whipped for minor offenses until their skin was bloody and bruised. The ‘Tucker telephone,' a hand-cranked device, was used to administer electrical shocks to various sensitive parts of an inmate's body."[13] The trusty system remained in use until 1975.[14]

Inmates tried many times to bring the terrible conditions at Tucker into the public eye, and a shootout between guards and convict Tom Slaughter in 1921 partially succeeded at launching an investigation into conditions at the prison farm. Tom Slaughter had been put into the prison system for stealing when he was fifteen, and he expanded his criminal activities to bank robbing, gang activity, larceny, and murder. Slaughter spent the next ten years escaping, sometimes after he freed other convicts, from prisons in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Arkansas. He was sent to Tucker Prison Farm in January 1921.[15] A few months later, Slaughter killed a trusty guard during an escape attempt that turned into a gunfight with wardens. Two prominent figures in prison reform at the time, Laura Cornelius Connor and Reverend W. B. Hogg, interviewed Slaughter after the escape attempt. He claimed that abysmal conditions at the prison had given him no other choice except to escape. Laura Connor and W. B. Hogg collected inmate testimonies that inmates had mailed to them, along with Slaughter’s testimony, to petition for the removal of Tucker Unit’s superintendent on grounds of abuse and torture.[16] The Penitentiary Board dismissed Connor’s and the inmates’ allegations, claiming that a committee tour of the prison had not found any cause for concern. Though she and her likeminded reformers had ultimately failed, Connor continued to advocate for prison reform the rest of her life.^[17]

The prison farm’s infrastructure changed very little until the 1940s. In 1940, thirty-six inmates escaped from nearby Cummins prison farm on Labor Day, 1940.^[18] The prisoners claimed that terrible conditions at Cummins forced them to run, and in 1941, the Penitentiary Board began an investigation of their own. The committee reported squalid living conditions, inedible food, and physical abuse. The state legislature approved an appropriation of $400,000 in 1941 to rectify the inmates’ poor living conditions. Unfortunately, World War II made the procurement of materials to build the new barracks almost impossible, and the building programs at Tucker and Cummins were postponed until the end of the war.[19]

Tucker State Farm started with two camps in 1916 with a warden housed at each camp. Inmates were housed in wooden buildings called stockades with one shower in each stockade, lo­cated in the center of the building. The number of camps grew to seven by the 1940s, spread throughout four thousand acres of Tucker’s agricultural land. The camps had no heating or air conditioning, little ventilation, and extremely poor shower and toilet facilities. When the building program funds became available again in 1948, construction on four new barracks began. The building plan called for “buildings much of the same pattern. In each there will be a long master corridor. From it to both sides will be wings. Some of the wings will house convicts; others, the kitchen, dining hall, hospital, guard rooms…in fact everything pertaining to the men.”[20] The “telephone pole” style building was a popular choice in the 1940s and 1950s for prison construction.  Wardens and architects believed the design required fewer guards as “every unit in the building has been so constructed that guards can look in and see what goes on,” a fantastic proposition for a prison system that only employed fourteen wardens for nearly 1,500 prisoners across both Cummins and Tucker.[21] Despite the new barracks, Tucker still lacked a hospital and the mess hall was in a wooden building separate from the main barracks in 1960.[22]

In 1966, Winthrop Rockefeller was elected governor and he set prison reform squarely on his agenda. Orval Faubus, the previous governor, had ordered a series of investigations in the 1960s that led to a report delivered to him just prior to the end of his term. In 1965, three inmates at Tucker had brought a suit against the prison that “use of corporal punishment at the Arkansas State Penitentiary for disciplinary purposes was cruel and unusual and violative of the constitutional rights of the plaintiffs.”[23] The Talley v. Stephens case did not outright forbid the use of corporal punishment, but it did state that excessive punishment without “appropriate safeguards” and “recognizable standards” was unconstitutional.[24]

The court case spurred Governor Orval Faubus to call in the State Police to investigate the conditions at the prison farm from August 19 to September 7, 1966. The report detailed fourteen-hour workdays, sexual assault, the violence of trusty guards perpetrated against other inmates, drunkenness, corruption, lack of food and medical care, and deplorable living conditions.[25] Jim Bruton, the superintendent at Tucker, was accused of participating in the torture of inmates using the infamous “Tucker Telephone”, which was found by State Police in his closet at the prison. Before the allegations against Bruton could be substantiated, he abruptly resigned his position and disappeared. He was later found guilty in 1969 of one count of violating inmates’ rights and was fined $1,000.[26] O. E. Bishop became superintendent after Bruton’s resignation, and one of his first acts was to fire all of Tucker’s non-inmate employees due to the corruption uncovered by the report. Governor Faubus received the report at the end of his tenure as governor but did not release it to the public.[27]

In 1967, Winthrop Rockefeller was sworn in as governor and he set prison reform squarely on his agenda, including racial integration of the prison system. Rockefeller decided to release the 1966 Tucker investigation report and appointed criminologist Thomas Murton, a professor in Illinois and former prison expert in Alaska, to lead efforts to reform Cummins and Tucker.[28] Murton kept open communication with many press outlets which reported on the infamous finding of three bodies buried at Cummins in 1968. The event was widely reported in the press and horrified the public, ultimately leading to many necessary and long-overdue reforms. Murton was successful at almost eliminating the use of the strap, made sure prisoners received better food, and worked to improve shower and medical facilities, though he was less effective at introducing meaningful rehabilitation programs such as educational programs or vocational training. Murton remained in his position for only eleven months before he resigned, claiming that the prison system was so resistant to reform attempts that he couldn’t do his job.[29]

The next year in 1969, inmates at Cummins brought a class-action lawsuit against the Arkansas prison system, contending that solitary confinement, the failure of guards to protect inmates from physical assault, and denial of medical access constituted cruel and unusual punishment. Judge J. Smith Henley, the same judge from the 1965 Talley v. Stephens case, ordered the prison commissioner Robert Sarver to resolve the specified conditions, but the commissioner’s report was not accepted by the court after the prescribed 30 days. Henley decided to keep the lawsuit open due to the unresolved nature of the inmates’ complaints. The following year in 1970, the three original cases were combined with five new lawsuits. Henley again presided over the case, Holt v. Sarver II. This time, the inmate petitioners contended that the cumulative abuses of the prison system at Cummins and Tucker violated the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Henley agreed, and in a landmark ruling declared the entire Arkansas prison system to be unconstitutional, the first time an entire state had its prison system so ruled.[30]

Terrell Don Hutto became commissioner of the Department of Corrections in 1971 and he began to modernize the prison system. His most lasting legacy was the dismantling of the trusty system and expanding the prison’s number of professional, trained guards. Hutto also established a school system for Arkansas prisons, and the first graduates of the GED program were awarded their diplomas in 1974.[31] The physical footprint of Tucker drastically increased in the 1970s and 1980s. The execution chamber moved to Cummins in 1974 and the area was turned into a dining hall. Five modular “pods” were also constructed, along with dozens of farm buildings and agricultural facilities. The Bus Barn was built in 1978, and inmates assigned there learned automotive skills and refurbished school buses for the state. A gymnasium was also built in the 1980s, and Tucker founded its own “Tucker Outlaws” baseball team. After ten years of litigation and reforms, Tucker became the first prison in Arkansas to be accredited by the American Correctional Association in 1981. The entire prison system was declared constitutional the next year in 1982.[32]

Since 1982, the state went on to drastically increase spending on the prison system. Instead of being self-supporting prison farms, Tucker and Cummins now require millions of taxpayer dollars to keep them operational. The number of prisons has also multiplied since Rockefeller’s governorship; during his tenure, Cummins, Tucker, and the Women’s Reformatory were the total extent of the penitentiary system. Today, the Department of Corrections oversees twenty-two facilities, including Varner Supermax, built in 1987 and within sight of Cummins State Farm.[33] As the second oldest prison farm in the state, Tucker has had a lasting legacy and impact on the prison system in Arkansas. It continues to operate as a prison farm, albeit under much better conditions than those faced by prisoners in the past.

STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE

Tucker State Farm began in 1916 as a self-sustaining, profit-generating prison owned by the state. The prison farm had a reputation for violence until the 1970s, when the entire prison system was declared unconstitutional as a result of class-action lawsuits filed by Cummins inmates which resulted in the landmark Holt v. Sarver II court case in 1969. Reforms continued through the 1970s and 1980s, and the prison system was finally declared constitutional once more in 1982. Tucker received accreditation by the American Correctional Association in 1981. For its importance as the second oldest prison farm and its importance to reforming the justice system in the state, Tucker State Farm is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places under Criterion A: Politics/Government with state significance.

Bibliography

Arkansas Democrat. “Transcript of Muton’s prison testimony.” Little Rock, AR: 06 Mar. 1969, pp. 8.

Arkansas Department of Corrections. “Prison History and Events 2012-1838.” Available at: https://doc.arkansas.gov/correction/about-us/prison-history-and-events/prison-history-and-events-2012-1838/. Accessed 08 Oct. 2023.

-------. “2006 Facts Brochure.” Available at: https://web.archive.org/web/20090806120702/http://www.adc.arkansas.gov/pdf/facts_brochure2006.pdf. Accessed 09 Oct. 2023.

Arkansas Gazette. “Divine tells of Slaughter Case.” Little Rock, AR: 25 Sept. 1921, pp. 20.

---------. “State Department Pay Rolls.” Little Rock, AR: 05 Apr. 1932, pp. 1.

---------. “2 Legislators Find Tucker Improved – But Not Enough.” Little Rock, AR: 15 Feb. 1967, pp. 38.

---------. “A Look at the Tucker Prison Farm ‘Time Tunnel’ from the Inside.” Little Rock, AR: 05 Mar. 1967, pp. 22.

Barbash, Fred. “Arkansas Lets the Light Into 'Brubaker's' Dark Ages Prison.” The Washington Post. 21 Sept. 1980. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1980/09/21/arkansas-lets-the-light-into-brubakers-dark-ages-prison/b59ac713-dd24-4bdf-a511-5e90195b35d1/. Accessed 06 Oct. 2023.

Choate, Laura. “Prison Reform.” Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Last updated 30 Jan 2023. Available at: https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/prison-reform-4159/. Accessed 06 Sept. 2023.

Criminal Investigations Division, Arkansas State Police. “Tucker Prison Farm Investigation, 1966.” Unpublished report. In the files of the Arkansas Department of Corrections at Pine Bluff.

Crosley, Clyde. Unfolding Misconceptions: The Arkansas State Penitentiary, 1836–1986. Arlington, TX: Liberal Arts Press, 1986.

Doughit, George. “Official Lists Needs for Prison Improvements.” Arkansas Democrat. Little Rock, AR: 14 Feb. 1960, pp. 45.

Gibbens, Jerry D. “Tom Slaughter (1896-1921).” Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Last updated 11 Apr. 2022. Available at: https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/tom-slaughter-1765/. Accessed 07 Nov. 2023.

Jackoway, Henderson M. “Relic of Barbarism.” Arkansas Gazette. Little Rock, AR: 28 Feb. 1931, pp. 3.

Jonesboro Daily Tribune. “Grand Jury Will Investigate the Convict Farm.” Jonesboro, AR: 28 Sept. 1921, pp. 4.

Jonesboro Weekly Sun. “Chancellor Upholds Prison Commission.” Jonesboro, AR: 30 Aug. 1916, pp. 4.

Kovalchek, Riley. “The Modern Plantation: The Continuities of Convict-Leasing and

an Analysis of Arkansas Prison Systems.” CLA Journal (2019). Vol. 7 (1), pp. 96-130. Available at: https://uca.edu/cahss/files/2020/07/Kovalcheck-CLA-2019.pdf.

McClellan, Dorothy S. “Hold v. Sarver.” Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Last updated 11 Apr. 2022. Available at: https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/holt-v-sarver-4165/. Accessed 09 Oct. 2023.

Murton, Tom, and Joe Hyams. Accomplices to the Crime: The Arkansas Prison Scandal. New York: Grove Press, 1969.

Smith, Ryan Anthony. “Laura Conner and the Limits of Prison Reform in 1920s Arkansas.” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 77 (Spring 2018): 52–63.

Teske, Steven. “Penal Systems.” Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Last updated 17 Jan 2023. Available at: https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/penal-systems-3485/. Accessed 06 Oct. 2023.

Tyler, Dina. “Determination of Eligibility Form: Tucker State Farm.” 16 Aug. 2023. In the files of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.

United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas. “Jackson v. Bishop, 268 F. Supp. 804 (E.D. Ark. 1967).” Justia U.S. Law. 03 June 1967. Available at: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/268/804/1481268/. Accessed 06 Nov. 2023.

Wirges, Joe. “Air-Conditioned New Prisons Set a Pattern.” Arkansas Gazette. Little Rock, AR: 28 Aug. 1949, pp. 4.

Woodward, Colin Edward. “Tucker Unit.” Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Last updated 16 June 2023. Available at: https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/tucker-unit-7608/. Accessed 02 Nov. 2023.

---------. ““There’s a Lot of Things That Need Changin’”: Johnny Cash, Winthrop Rockefeller, and Prison Reform in Arkansas.” The Arkansas Historical Quarterly 79, no. 1 (2020): 40–58.